FAQ

We find that the couples just looking for the lowest price, or even a “number”, aren’t necessarily the best fit for us. We certainly understand budgets, but when a family contacts us excited about the quality of our work and the moments they see we capture that no one else does, it allows us to get to know each other. The more we know about the personalities and wedding plans of our couples, the more personalized your wedding film is. And at that point, your wedding video is priceless. After a short 15-minute phone call or in-studio meeting, we’d LOVE to go over our offerings and prices once we know each other a little bit.

Yes, you can! All the samples on our site are actual videos our families have received. Most of them are called “Highlights Films” and can be added to each wedding “package”. You can learn more on our “Enhancements” page. After we speak with our families and our prices and offerings are are a good fit, we then send you a PRIVATE link to 5-10 of our 20-25 minute “Feature Films” our past couples have received. that way, you see a difference in our work and also know exactly the value of what it is you are investing in. We encourage you NOT to book with other videographers you may be comparing us to until you see full videos of theirs as well. Even if you decide you like theirs better, at least you picked the right one for you instead of guessing or basing it just on price.

Along with a link to our private film gallery, we send you a simple way to for you to view all the details of our package offerings and add-ons/enhancements. Included, is a way to select what you want, signed the agreement electronically and send in the retainer all online! The non-refundable retainer is $1000 off of the “package” balance. Sending this in online via Visa, Mastercard or mailing a check reserves the date! It’s first come first serve.

Life Stage Films is owned by lead filmmaker Matt Davis. Matt has a wedding film package that is only available to 10-15 families per year. It is the creme de la creme, the Filet Mignon of wedding films, if you will. He would love to film your wedding!

If you’d still like one of the best wedding films in the South East, Matt has trained two separate teams of videographers so you can still have a creative and compelling documentary of your wedding you deserve, at a lower investment level. Although still limited, Amy’s team and Chris’ team are also available for more wedding dates. You will see full samples of not only Matt’s actual weddings, but also Chris and Amy’s and will know which one will be shooting your wedding after booking.

We need to be honest with you. We are a little bit selfish regarding our motives for NOT making your wedding day a “production” either. We simply can not afford for you or your guests to notice us. So relax. Wedding videos, if chosen correctly, are the best investment you can make in your wedding. You’ll actually notice your photographer more than you’ll see us. We don’t set up shots, and we don’t have cameras in anyone’s face. We certainly don’t conduct cheesy table interviews. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to get the “genuine” moments our past couples enjoyed receiving and the moments you have felt watching a few films on our site. Read up on our reviews on Wedding Wire to learn more about previous clients’ experiences with us.

We travel all over the world! In addition to filming weddings all over US from coast to coast, we have filmed in Europe, Central America, and South America. So we will go wherever you’ll have us! We simply provide a custom package built specifically for your event so that once the wedding day has passed, all expenses are paid and you can relax knowing you had one of the best event film-making teams in the world filming your wedding!

No offense, but we do NOT want to be in your wedding pictures. Therefore, we make it a point to call your photographer the week before your wedding if we haven’t worked with them before. This always allows us to ease the tensions that some photographers feel, and also establish a “team effort” mentality with the ones that understand this is your day. We do a great job of not only refraining from setting up cheesy shots or shooting behind the photographer’s shoulder, but we “dance” with the photographer during major moments of the day so you never even notice we are there. Hopefully the photographers honor your wedding day enough to do the same for your video! Honestly, we have found that when we love the personalities and style of our couples, they choose a photographer that represents that as well! Win win!

Yes, and no. You are hiring us to create a piece of “art” that represents your wedding day to the best of our ability. So naturally, if you are adamant about having that special Shania Twain song from 1999 in your film but it doesn’t fit the mood or feeling of your day, we aren’t doing our job. With that said, we want this film to represent you, not us! So, for the couples that trust us to film their day, we send a quick questionnaire about a month before the wedding date that answers all of our logistical and timeline questions about your wedding. Included are a few questions that ask specifically what some of your favorite songs are, and even your favorite artists or genres. We even ask you what music you hate! From that starting point, we actually seek out and find music off the beaten path, based on your preferences, you might not hear on the radio. That way your wedding film soundtrack not only reflects your style and taste, but is unique to your wedding, and your wedding alone! Give us a test run…check out some of the music we have found and used in the samples on our blog.

What’s included on your wedding DVD or USB jump drive is a 25-25 minute “Feature Film”, as well as a separate track that includes your FULL ceremony, FULL toasts and FULL first dances, no matter how long they may be. We use the collection of smaller and bigger moments of your day from the getting ready, to the arrival of all your guests, cocktail hour, photo session and the dancing at the party to create your “Feature Film”. Although we don’t exclude moments that we know you will want to see, we can provide you ALL the RAW unedited footage on an external USB Hard Drive viewable on a PC or Mac computer at an additional cost. Just let us know!

One thing that benefits you about having a full team of people like Life Stage Films, instead of just one or two people is that we can not only collaborate to perfect your wedding film, but we get it back to you sooner than anyone else you might hire. If you do your homework, you’ll find most videographers take between 6-10 months to get your video back to you. We feel that’s unacceptable. We create your wedding film and deliver it to you and your family between 3-6 months.

We would love to refer you to other wedding pros and vendors that we love, have great respect for, and work well with! For anyone that inquires with us, whether you choose to have us at your wedding or not, we send a link to a page called “Vendors We Love”. It links to all of our favorite artists, venues and planners we love both regionally and nationally.

We understand you may feel you are “missing out” on a lot of what we captured from your wedding day. But nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of sending you a boring 2-3 hour wedding video (think of the stereotype that may be holding you back), we take ALL the perfect moments large and small from your wedding, as well as details you may have missed and truly create a “film”, a narrative of your day. Audio is huge for us too, so your toasts, vows and message at the ceremony is vital in telling your wedding day story. You do have the option of purchasing ALL the footage we come away with on a separate hard drive but the best analogy is this…

Hollywood spends 9-12 months to film and prepare for a 1.5-2 hour feature length film. Imagine ALL that footage they whittle down to create a compelling story, that’s entertaining and convenient to watch. We do the same thing! Only we only have 9 hours to make the magic happen. No second takes at a wedding. :)

We have options available for you to get the digital version of your wedding film and any enhancements you may have added to your package in H.264 movie format. This video format is both compatible on all of Apple’s mobile products as well as playable on a PC via Quicktime!

No, we don’t, but we can recommend some amazing photographers that we work with frequently that are JUST as good at their craft as we are with ours. We feel that photography and videography are equally important. Because of that, we just want to focus on what we do best, telling stories of wedding days with our video cameras. We let the photographers do what they do best, and work so well with them that you won’t even notice you hired us! We feel that the majority of studios that offer both services, or even DJ companies that offer videography, can’t really focus 100% on doing the best job they can for both services. We don’t want to water down your video or photo experience by trying to offer both. Let us know if you need some recommendations!

Can’t find your answer?

We try to cover most common questions in our FAQ, but if you haven't found the answer you're looking for, click here and fill out the quick form. We'll get back to you within 48 hours or less.

Coaching For Videographers

Wedding videographers: Improve your craft and business with Head Coach Matt Davis.